SA Rugby president Mark Alexander has acknowledged that midweek provincial matches during New Zealand's South African tour have failed to draw meaningful crowds and says the format needs to change for future tours.
Speaking at the unveiling of Rugby's Greatest Rivalry trophy in Johannesburg, Alexander was candid about the shortcomings. "I think one of the things that we should look at is not having midweek games, especially for Gauteng and Durban. The midweek games don't work. The weekend games seem to have done well, both the weekend games."
The All Blacks' clashes with the Stormers in Cape Town and the Bulls in Pretoria — both played on weekends — attracted respectable crowds, while the midweek fixture against the Sharks in Durban drew significantly fewer spectators. A similarly thin turnout is anticipated when the All Blacks face the Lions at Ellis Park next Tuesday, the day before the first Test at the same venue on Saturday.
Alexander also suggested that future tours should feature representative selected sides rather than individual franchises. "Maybe look at playing picked teams, like an SA 'A' team and an SA Country team. Having teams like the teams playing in the SA Cup, a picked team, giving those boys a chance. It's about creating opportunities and pathways for guys who don't have the opportunity to play at this level."
He conceded that the timing of the tour — coinciding with URC pre-season preparations — had compromised the quality of the provincial opposition, but stopped short of dwelling on it, instead repeating his call for a unified global calendar. "We need to sort our seasons out and we'll always have this challenge until we can find a global season. But I think with the Nations Championship, we have a group of 12 countries — I think we'll find a solution there."
Despite the muted interest in the provincial matches, Alexander expressed satisfaction with the Test series, which is close to a sellout, with only scattered seats remaining at FNB Stadium for the second Test in Johannesburg. The DHL Stadium in Cape Town hosts the series finale on 29 August. Alexander put the direct and indirect economic impact of the full tour at approximately ZAR 6.8 billion.